So when our WMWP UMass intern Grace Dugan sat down to share her experiences in high school at a charter school based on the PBL philosophy, I was grateful to have an ear open (and I helped edit the video). I appreciated how Grace talked about her experiences, and how the inquiry model really shaped how she approaches learning and PBL has a resonance effect.

I’m working with some teachers in my school district, exploring Project-Based Learning. In a gathering, we used Answer Garden to gather a bit about what comes to mind when we think of PBL (which is rather new for all of us). How about you? What comes to mind when you think of Project-Based Learning? I’ll share these responses with my colleagues.

I faciliated the first of a few PLC sessions with colleagues across my school district yesterday afternoon during a full PD day, with our focus on the theme of Project-Based Learning. I’ve been reading A.J. Juliana’s useful book on PBL (The PBL Playbook) , which we are getting copies of for everyone in my small group.

I pulled out a small PBL simulation project idea from his pages for today’s workshop as a way to walk us through the possibilities of PBL. The idea is to use the Global Goals for Sustainable Development resource site to choose a topic, explore that topic, discover information and action, and share out.

I was hoping the teachers might enjoy the simulation process, and would view it as a learning experience as both student and teacher. They did enjoy it, expressing appreciation for the small-scale (about 45 minutes) version of something that loosely follows the overall flow of a PBL venture. They worked in small teams on this.

We used Google Slides for our work, since it is part our PLC networked space. (AJ suggests making a Public Service video on mobile devices, too. I like that, but didn’t want to overwhelm my colleagues. And they liked having some experience in Slides and Classroom)

I did a sample presentation on the Hunger Zero concept (above), so that I could experience what my colleagues will experience (who are thinking of what their students might experience in a PBL classroom), and to work through any problems.